Genelia Deshmukh reveals why she left films after marriage, says people assumed husband Riteish Deshmukh asked her to quit acting

Genelia Deshmukh opened up about the reason as to why she stepped away from the movies after getting married to Riteish Deshmukh.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | April 21, 2023 02:29 PM IST

3 min read

Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia have been together for for two decades. (Photo: Ritesh Deshmukh/Instagram)

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Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia Deshmukh have been together for 21 years. The couple that first started dating when they were both working as actors but Genelia took a 10-year break after she got married. “I didn’t work for 10 years,” she told Kareena Kapoor on her chat show What Women Want. Many believed that since the Deshmukhs were a political family, they had asked Genelia to stop working in the movies but she said that this was not the case.

Genelia said that she had been working a lot in various film industries and the couple “had a long distance relationship” so once they got married, Genelia wanted to “prioritise differently.” She recalled that the first thing that people asked her after she got married was, “Riteish said no to acting? Huh?” or “the family doesn’t want you to (act).” Riteish said that in their case, “She said no, I’ve worked too much and I just want to take a break.”

Riteish said that even though he comes from a politically influential family, for him “family is me and her.” “There could be a certain perception because of the political position that my father held, that you come from a certain family but for us, it’s me and Genelia and the kids,” he said and added, “Whatever Genelia wants to do is her decision and I will never ever tell her what to do and she respects my decisions also.”

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Genelia and Riteish are parents to two boys and when Kareena asked them about taking a break after welcoming their children, Riteish said, “They always expect the lady to take some time home after the child.” But, he said it is “for the lady to decide when she wants to get back. One should not force, one should not say you need to stay home.”

He shared that he wanted Genelia to get back to the movies sooner but it got delayed because of the pandemic. He felt that she was missing her time in front of the camera and encouraged her to get back. “Somewhere, Genelia had stopped being herself at home because we dated when we were working together,” he said and added, “I felt that she was missing being in front of the camera.”

Riteish and Genelia recently starred in the Marathi film Ved, which was directed by Riteish and turned out to be a big hit.

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